District Conference 2024 and Baptisms!

More than 400 lay leaders and clergy gathered at Lakeview Wesleyan Church in Marion on Saturday, June 29, for our Crossroads District annual conference. This was the highest attendance since our merging conference in 2016. What an exciting day!
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*** Just a reminder that our Crossroads District “Ordination and Celebration of Ministry” will be held on Sunday, September 15, at Lakeview Wesleyan Church in Marion. Ordained ministers will meet at 4:30 pm for the group photo with this year’s ordinands and final directions for the service. The service will begin promptly at 5:00 pm with a celebration of our retiring ministers, decadal years of service awards, and a reception for our newly ordained ministers.
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We began our time together led in musical worship by church planter Janiel Caraballo and a team including vocalists and musicians from Exit Church in Anderson and Rising Hope Church in Muncie. It’s inspiring to be in a room full of Wesleyans lifting their voices together in praise!
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We continued in worship together through the sacrament of communion. Dr. Chris Williams, Assistant DS and our host pastor for the day, along with Circuit Riders Rev. Mark Atkinson, Rev. Neftali Lopez, and Dr. Jim Lo, led us in celebrating The Lord’s Supper.
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We received special reports from honored guests including General Superintendent, Dr. Wayne Schmidt, Kingswood University’s President Steve Lennox, and Global Partners’ representative Rev. Ian Swyers. Dr. Kulaga, president of IWU, was unable to join us but Dr. Mark McMichael represented the university. We were also delighted to have several exhibitors present, including Marv Miller from American Church Group (Brotherhood Mutual). It was through Marv’s generosity that we were able to award the door prize of a free iPad to Jared Kaufman, Assistant Pastor at Fairmount Wesleyan Church.

Statistical highlights for the past conference year included 9% combined growth in worship attendance (12,426, up 1087 from 11,339 last year) with 66% of the churches reporting growth. You invested a near-record 97.6% of assessed contributions toward the United Stewardship Fund. Most importantly, we celebrated 1416 professions of faith and 884 baptisms (the highest in at least 20 years). In answer to our prayers for God to send out laborers into His harvest field, 168 persons expressed their discernment of God’s ministry calling on their lives. Combined with the 156 last year, that totals 324 answering God’s call in the past 24 months. God is on the move!
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​Conference business for the day included DBA elections and two DBA recommendations.
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• Mrs. Jessie Pablo (Roanoke Arise Church) and Dr. Dale Sloan (Fort Wayne Three Rivers Church) were elected to three-year terms as lay members replacing Mrs. Tonya Scalf and Mr. Joel Hunt who completed their three-year terms.
  
  

• The DBA presented a recommendation with full support from the Fairmount Camp, Inc Board of Directors to transfer the title of the camp property from Crossroads District to the camp. The motion was approved with 372 voting “Yes” and 14 voting “No.” The DBA, as empowered by the conference, will work with the Camp Board to complete this transfer this year.
  
  

• The DBA presented a recommendation to approve a significant editorial revision of the Standing Rules as prompted by updates in the 2022 Discipline of The Wesleyan Church. The motion was approved with 371 voting “Yes” and 13 voting “No.” The Standing Rules, as edited, will be part of the conference journal but will also be distributed directly to pastors for sharing with their respective local boards of administration. Changes may be proposed by a Local Church Conference or LBA and communicated to the DBA for presentation at next year’s district conference.

​The conference concluded with a challenge to stay focused on our mission that matters for eternity. We still have 3 million unreached people in the growing state of Indiana. Our church planters gathered at the front as Dr. Jim, our District Prayer Coordinator, led us in a time of blessing these pioneers and praying that God would send even more laborers into His harvest.

Thank you again to Dr. Chris Williams, host pastor, and the Lakeview Wesleyan Church team for an amazing job of hosting our conference. And special thanks to Michael Wood, the man so often behind the scenes who really makes the magic happen!

The DBA met following the conference and took the following actions. Dr. Chris Williams was re-elected Assistant DS and as Vice-Chair. The DBA also approved the recommendation to elect Rev. Grace Lopez as Assistant District Superintendent for Hispanic Ministries. In addition to her continued leadership of FLAMA (the Spanish-language ministerial training program), Rev. Lopez will visit each Hispanic congregation this conference year and will assist the DS in other initiatives to encourage the development of our ministry with Spanish-speaking leaders.
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Sherry and I finished an amazing weekend by worshiping at ONE Church in Westfield with Rev. Andy Riemersma and his team. They had already celebrated one baptism midweek in the YMCA pool. That baptism came about as a result of Pastor Andy serving as a chaplain with the Indiana Pacer’s G-League team, the Mad Ants.
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Then, on Sunday morning, they celebrated another baptism of a young adult lady in their worship gathering. ONE Church grew by 29% last year and the auditorium was packed out for this service. They are excited to have room for growth as they prepare to move into the Westfield YMCA’s new space early next year. Congratulations also to Pastor Andy and Leanza as they celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary yesterday!
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Speaking of baptisms, Pastor Ervin Webster shared with me that they had celebrated a baptism last month at St. Stephen’s Church in the Warren Park neighborhood of Indianapolis. Praise God for lives being #MadeNew!
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Pastor Scott McDermid and the team at Sheridan Six Points Wesleyan Church were blessed with two more baptisms. Six Points Church grew last year by 11% (from 175 to 194) and celebrated 25 baptisms last year. God is on the move in Sheridan!
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​In other exciting news, Fairmount Camp reported that they’ve passed their 200 camper goal in registrations for the children’s camp, July 8-12. To learn more about this camp or other upcoming programs like Family Camp (July 21-28) and Legacy Camp (August 14-18), please visit their website: www.fairmountcamp.org. Pray for these important ministries!

Sherry will be joining me as I head out now for three weeks of vacation. Our plans include meeting our newest grandson (due on July 12). I’ll be back in time to join a group of our pastors heading to the GROW conference at Church of the Highlands during the last week of July. Thank you in advance to Dr. Chris Williams and Michael Wood (district administrator) for covering the bases in my absence. They can reach me in cases of emergency.

​I’m praying that you will have an amazing summer of ministry and will take some time off to enjoy our beautiful state of Indiana. I’m believing with you for another blessed year as we pursue God’s mission together here in the Crossroads District.

“Live a life worthy of the calling you have received!” – Ephesians 4:1

Your servant in Christ,

Mark Gorveatte

​P.S. Our first Pastors and Spouses Fellowship Brunch will be held in Warsaw at Creighton’s Crazy Egg on Saturday, September 14. Pastors will receive an email to RSVP and there will be door prizes!